Catholic Church at 'Critical Juncture'

By Barney Zwartz
The Age
November 20, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/catholic-church-at-critical-juncture-20131120-2xvf3.html

Ordinary Catholics told they must take lead in rebuilding trust in wake of the abuse crisis.

Ordinary Catholics have to take responsibility for the church as it emerges from the abuse crisis and tries to rebuild trust, says church spokesman Francis Sullivan.

In a speech on Wednesday evening in Ballarat – deliberately chosen as one of the regional centres most scarred by clergy sexual abuse – Mr Sullivan said the church was at a critical juncture and warned that revelations soon to emerge at the royal commission would dishearten and disillusion Catholics around the country.

"Community disgust and outrage will again be unleashed," he said.

The royal commission next month begins a public session examining the Catholic response Towards Healing, and how the church dealt with four separate victims.

The Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled clergy child sexual abuse was scathing about the church in its report last week, and the church has since endorsed the report's wide-ranging recommendations for legal and other reforms.

The inquiry also criticised Victoria Police, as reported by Fairfax Media on Wednesday, saying police evidence about the church hindering them was unfair and an attempt to distance the force from its own failures. The police replied on Wednesday afternoon that the report was "fair and balanced".

Mr Sullivan, the layman who is CEO of the Truth, Healing and Justice Council which liaises between the church leadership and the royal commission, has written to state and federal attorneys-general backing an independent national compensation scheme. He told Fairfax Media that victims were becoming frustrated at the apparent lack of urgency.

At the Ballarat public meeting, Mr Sullivan said the church could now choose to "manage through" sexual abuse issues, or it could begin the huge task of restoring trust with action and authenticity.

He said it was quite clear that the church hierarchy's response had been inadequate, and lay Catholics had to get involved.

"As the community of believers who make up the church, we were not responsible for the crimes and cover-up, but we are now responsible for how we react to them," he said.

"We are responsible for how we respond to the victims, how we deal with the perpetrators, how we push for reform and cultural change and how we talk about sexual abuse in the church with our friends, our families, our colleagues.

"We will be judged on how we act now. We can no longer stand by."

Mr Sullivan said the royal commission was not an exercise in "getting Catholics", who must not go into a defensive mode that stopped them seeing things as they really were.

The way forward was an independent church-funded body to determine compensation, and a properly resourced and designed pastoral plan, he said.

Victoria Police said the inquiry had done a thorough and diligent job and given valuable findings and recommendations, particularly in expanding criminal offences around grooming and concealment. The statement to Fairfax Media did not reply to the report's direct criticism.

It welcomed the state government signalling that it would act swiftly.